This is How Beauty Brand Chooses Spokesperson This year

The spokesperson's external image and internal characteristics are key to the brand's fitting.

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Recently, with a notification from the police, the illegal behavior of a well-known actor, Li Yifeng, was confirmed. After the news was released, sevaral brands such as PRADA and Sensodyne, for which Li Yifeng was the spokesperson, quickly announced the termination of all partnerships with him.

Although spokesperson flops usually bring unpredictable losses to brands, it is undeniable that choosing a good spokesperson is still a good choice for them to activate their market momentum. According to CHAILEEDO's incomplete statistics, as of press time, 48 cosmetic brands have officially announced 52 new spokespeople in total since 2022.

It is worth noting that, from the characteristics of the spokespersons chosen by cosmetic brands this year, focusing on the inner beauty of the spokesperson has become mainstream, and staying away from tainted entertainers like "Li Yifeng" has become the key for brands to avoid the risk of becoming unexpected collateral damage.

Low-risk and focused marketing

Choosing multiple stars for endorsement is also a major trend in brand endorsement. According to CHAILEEDO's incomplete statistics, among the 48 beauty brands that officially announced new spokespersons, 9 brands such as 3CE_STYLENANDA, Nivea, Mentholatum, and MeiFuBao have all officially announced two new spokespersons, and different spokespersons have different titles, including "brand friend", "brand ambassador", “the body skincare spokesperson”, “cleanser spokesperson”, and so on.

There are two main reasons for that. On the one hand, a multi-star endorsement strategy reduces the risk of star flopping and influencing the brand. In the past two years, celebrity "flopping" events have been common.

Some industry insiders pointed out that the brand quickly announced the termination of the contract after the spokesperson flopped can reduce the misunderstanding of the brand to a certain extent, while the use of multiple stars endorsements is to prepare in advance for the possible negative effects of the brand brought about by the spokesperson "flopping".

On the other hand, the use of multiple endorsers and a more professional subdivision of endorser titles are more like brands using celebrity traffic to mark their products.

For example, in August this year, CHANDO announced Wang Yibo as the global spokesperson for the brand's facial mask. At the same time, it also recommended to the market focus on the efficacy of the mask category. A Chinese beauty brand director analyzed and said, "this official announcement by CHANDO aims to emphasize to the market that its brand facial mask has shifted to the efficacy type."

CHAILEEDO noticed that in the Wang Yibo endorsement video, the Ampoule Mask, Himalaya Green Tea Clay Purifying Mask, and Aha Multi-layer Renewal Mask highlight the "brighten", "clean", and "new" 3 characteristics respectively representing the product's efficacy of "brightening", "cleansing" and "revitalizing". As of press time, the forward’s number of the official announcement of CHANDO and spokesperson Wang Yibo has exceeded one million times on Weibo.

Focus on the inner beauty of the spokesperson

While downplaying external gender differences, many brands are also digging deeper into the inner qualities of their spokesperson and establishing a value resonance with their own brand image or product efficacy.

On August 29, Hu Yue was officially announced as the "Beauty Ambassador of INOHERB" by INOHERB's WeChat public account. It is reported that Hu Yue was praised by the People's Daily, CCTV News, and other official media as a "sparkling girl" at the Beijing Winter Paralympics Games for her optimism, love, and self-confidence.

The director in charge of a new brand under a listed company told CHAILEEDO that the primary purpose of the brand spokesperson chosen by INOHERB is not to gain traffic, but more to link Hu Yue's inner qualities of "Where the heart leads, it will shine" with INOHERB's product efficacy of "not being oxidized, I want to shine" to highlight the value proposition of the brand.

Judging from the response to the official announcement video on the Tiktok China platform, many users said: “the advertising is very inspiring”, "I was touched by the ad," "This ad is very powerful," and so on, which can be seen that this official announcement has powerfully conveyed the positive energy of the brand to users.

Before this, MAC’s official announcement "no pretend, no excessive makeup" with Wang Jiaer, Dr. Yu official announcement of "Be yourself with strength" with Wang Meng, and other marketing content, and also consciously establish a value association between good quality of the star and the efficacy of the product and their brand images.

Duan Chunlin, director of the Department of Brand Communication of the South China University of Technology, mentioned in a related book that the 3.0 era of values-driven marketing starts with value resonance, in which brands provide a positive value and eventually resonate with consumers through communication and interaction. And Duan Chunlin believes that once this resonance is created, some of the effects of consumers' purchasing behavior, word-of-mouth communication, and becoming the purveyors and advocates of brand values are unattainable by marketing 1.0 and marketing 2.0.

It is clear that as the times continue to evolve, the focus of brand marketing is also being upgraded. Cosmetics brands no longer simply need celebrity endorsement, the form of correlation and unity between external image and inner qualities of the spokesperson and product efficacy, image, and value of the brand want to promote will be the primary direction of the future cosmetics brands to consider when selecting a celebrity spokesperson.